I come from a long line of canners/preservers but I really haven’t gotten into the swing of canning until the last couple of years.
Now? It’s an obsession. I love to fill my pantry to the brim with the bounty of summer. So last week, when my vegetable co-op offered 21 pounds of green beans for $15, I jumped on it. Little did I realize how many beans are in 21 pounds.
See?
Farmstand Spicy Dilly Beans
And this is only about 2/3 of my haul. I couldn’t even fit them all in my sink. My mission over the next two days? Canning. And lots of it.
As luck would have it, the awesome folks over at Ball Canning contacted me a while back to see if I would like to participate in their National Can it Forward Day hosted by Ted Allen of Chopped fame, which officially takes place this Saturday, August 17. OF COURSE I said yes…I mean, Ball has been the leader in canning and preserving for over 125 years. I couldn’t wait to try out what they were sending my way.
I ended up receiving a six pack of the fabulous blue Heritage Collection Jars, and a Canning Discovery Kit, both of which I used to create this recipe, as well as an invaluable copy of The Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. All three of these items make up the awesome giveaway at the end of this post, so please, don’t forget to enter!
Now back to my canning. After I’d made 24 pints of regular old canned green beans, I was only halfway through my box o’ beans. I thought on what I’d like to make with the rest of them and AHA! Of course. Spicy Dilly Beans. Perfect for snacking and even MORE perfect in a bloody mary.
After I’d cleaned my beans, I trimmed them.
Next, I gathered my ingredients – vinegar, salt, peppercorns, dill, garlic and red pepper flakes.
An important part of canning? Making sure all components are ready to go. A good set up is imperative.
These are the Heritage Collection Jars from Ball. Aren’t they gorgeous?
Assembly time. First the spices, garlic and dill go in…
then the beans.
They are topped with the brine and into the water bath they go for 10 minutes.
Simple, eh? Canning is nothing to be afraid of…it’s not difficult. It just takes a little time and preparation – which will all be worth it tenfold when you crack a jar of these open in the middle of January. Summer in a jar (and don’t forget to make that bloody mary!).
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Farmstand Spicy Dilly Beans
- Prep Time: 1 Hour
- Cook Time: 20 Minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 pint jars 1x
Description
Crunchy and perfect for snacking or in a bloody mary, you’ll love our Farmstand Spicy Dilly Beans! (also, there’s a giveaway…just saying).
Ingredients
- 6 pint jars with self sealing lids and rings
- 4 1/4 pounds of green beans, cleaned and trimmed to fit jars
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons canning salt or natural sea salt (make sure there are no anti-caking agents in your salt)
- 6 sprigs fresh dill weed
- 18 black peppercorns
- 1 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake
- 12 cloves garlic, peeled
Instructions
- Prepare your beans – wash them in fresh, clean water with a tablespoon of vinegar. Then trim them and cut them, if necessary, to fit into the jars.
- Prepare your jars and lids – you can immerse them into boiling water OR run them on sanitize in the dishwasher just prior to canning. They’ll be clean, hot and ready to go! Whichever method you choose, keep your jars hot until you need to use them.
- In a large pan, bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Stir until salt dissolves. Keep this mixture hot as well.
- It’s time to stuff your jars! Place 2 cloves garlic, 1 sprig dill weed, 3 peppercorns and 1/6 of the red pepper flake into the bottom of each hot jar.
- Next, stuff in the green beans vertically. Get as many as you can in – then stuff some more!
- Using a funnel, add the hot water/vinegar/salt mixture to each jar leaving 1/2 an inch of headroom at the top. DO NOT OVERFILL!
- Wipe the rim of each jar with a clean cloth and place a sanitized self sealing lid on top. Screw the ring over the lid till it’s just tight. You don’t need to get it SUPER tight. We’re just using it to keep the lid in place until its sealed.
- Bring a stock pot full of water to an angry boil.
- CAREFULLY lower each jar into the boiling water (the basket in Ball’s Canning Discovery Kit is awesome for this task).
- Leave the jars in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
- Lift out each jar and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool.
- You will start to hear loud pinging noises…that is good. It means the seal has formed.
- When the jars are cooled, check the seals gently. If any of the jars haven’t sealed, no worries. They’ll keep in the fridge for a while. Sealed, they’ll keep at room temperature for a year.
- Try not to dig in right away…the beans need at least a week to develop a really great flavor!
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